Field hockey: Pezzuti leads No. 4 West Essex to first Group 2 title since 2011

After suffering heartbreak in last year's Group 2 final, Stephanie Pezzuti and the rest of the seniors for West Essex wanted to show how strong their program truly is.

Pezzuti scored the lone goal to lift West Essex, No. 4 in The Star-Ledger Top 20, over No. 14 Wall, 1-0, in the NJSIAA/Investors Bank Group 2 final at Toms River East High School in Toms River.

The group title is the 16th in West Essex program history and its first since 2011.

"This program just works year to year," said Pezzuti. "It shows how much this program means to a lot of people. As seniors, and as juniors and sophomores did for the seniors last year, it shows how hard our entire team has worked and how hard our coaching staff has worked."

The game was even all the way through, as both teams palyed strong defensive all season. Coming into the game, Wall had only given up 14 goals and West Essex had only been scored on 12 times. The defensive efforts led to a scoreless at halftime.

Both goalies, Hannah Manson for Wall and Paige Innarella for West Essex, were on their games early, each coming up with big stops to keep the game scoreless.

With 19:22 remaining in the second half, Pezzuti held the ball near the top of the circle. She fired a reverse chip shot into the back of the cage to give her team a 1-0 lead.

"One of my teammates and I work on reverse chips every day in practice," said Pezzuti. "Against Rumson (in the Group 2 semifinals), we had two reverse chips, but both were outside of the circle. So on the bus coming here, we said, 'We're going to get one on the reverse chip.' It was crazy and exciting."

Just 40 seconds after the goal, Wall carried the ball down on offense. Innarella made a save while sprawled on the ground and Caroline Fiore cleared the ball away for West Essex, squashing the rally. West Essex was able to kill two penalties in the second half to keep the ball on offense for the final 4:30 to run out the time and earn another title.

The victory also gave West Essex coach Jill Cosse a win over her high school coach. Cosse played for Wall coach Nancy Gross in the late 1980s.

"It was something to play against her," said Gross. "It's kind of tough. It's fun. It's nice to see one of your own really develop and go so far and become such a great coach. It was just fun."

"It was a very surreal feeling," said Cosse. "That's where I grew up but this (West Essex) is where my life has been."

West Essex advances to their fifth Tournament of Champions in the seven years it has been held.